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Sino-UK accord opens up doors

Hundreds of British academics are expected to take up university posts in China
over the next few years as UK universities strengthen collaborations and
Chinese institutions aim to boost academic standards.

More foreign expertise is being sought by Chinese institutions in a higher
education sector that has quadrupled in size over the past six years and now
comprises 1,000 public and 1,000 private universities with 20 million
students.

A growing number of UK institutions are setting up Chinese offices and
campuses, and are urging UK researchers to work in China to help them establish
their overseas operations.

Hundreds of new academic jobs are being created through a massive expansion in
the number of courses run in partnership between Chinese and UK or other
foreign institutions. Foreign academics are being encouraged to take up posts
by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Its concern is to protect quality as it
processes more than 1,000 applications for new jointly run courses.

Although there are no official figures, the British Council in China says there
is little doubt that there has been a significant increase in the number of UK
academics working in China over the past five years.

Andrew Disbury, the British Council's education director in China, said
employment opportunities were particularly attractive to young researchers,
although there was also a strong demand for more experienced academics. He
said: "The opportunities are attractive for many reasons, including
professional, personal, institutional and diplomatic. For young academics, they
present a chance to open their eyes to what is going on on the other side of
the world and to develop their careers. It also links up with the fact that
China is very keen on inward flows of academics and students through exchanges
with foreign universities."

Academics' wages are much lower in China than in the UK, but Chinese
institutions that have partnerships with foreign universities have been allowed
to charge higher student fees and are therefore in a position to offer better
pay, as well as free accommodation and travel expenses in some cases. But most
UK lecturers and researchers working in China continue to be employed by their
home institution and receive a UK wage in a country where the cost of living is
much lower.

Another attraction is that many Chinese institutions offer world-class research
facilities that might not be available to an academic working in the UK.

Gary Rawnsley, dean of Nottingham University's new campus in Ningbo, where 60
UK academics are employed, said: "If you are doing research on China, there are
opportunities to expand your research and do much more than you could in the
UK."

The language barrier was not a problem because most Chinese students speak good
English, he added. "We have many staff here who can speak hardly a word of
Chinese, yet they manage superbly," he said.

John Hoskinson, deputy registrar for Liverpool University, which is hoping to
build a campus in China, said: "I am sure China offers attractive
opportunities, particularly for young and unfettered academics. I would
recommend they come here."

Steve Wilson, international co-ordinator for Portsmouth University's faculty of
technology, said staff exchange opportunities were increasing rapidly in
China.

"We are putting more people into Chinese institutions because that is what the
Chinese want, and it is seen as good staff development," he said.

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